Illegally stored chemicals blamed for China blast

BEIJING - Illegally stored chemicals in an adjacent room were responsible for a powerful explosion that ripped through an Internet cafe in China’s Guizhou province, leaving six dead and 38 injured, police said Sunday.

The chemicals exploded at 11.05 p.m. Saturday in a room next door to the Lianxun Internet Cafe in Kaili city in the Miao-Dong autonomous prefecture of Qiandongnan, Xinhua reported.

At least 44 people were in the cafe when the explosion took place, officials said.

Police have detained a man named Wu Zhanzhi for illegally possession of the chemicals. The cafe’s owner Chen Chenggui and manager Xing Guangchang were also in police custody.

The injured were being taken care of in local hospitals and doctors said their condition was stable.

The blast turned the cafe into complete ruins and also damaged nearby buildings.